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When Is A Fish Just A Fish

“So, do you believe in Jesus?”
I get asked this most times I discuss a faith system that is not only non-christian but doesn’t really have a dogma at all. It’s a question perplexing because it’s so presumptuous. Not just from the standpoint of religious exclusivity, has anyone ever been asked “Are you sure you don’t believe in Vishnu??” But also because it assumes that belief in a person automatically means belief in what other people have said about them and whatever value system has been attached to them over time.
If I say that I do believe in Jesus, does that mean I accept that a person named Yeshua lived in the area we know as Judea around 2000 years ago and narrowly escaped a pedocideal culling by one Roman appointee only to be eventually crucified by another all the while telling people that the poor are actually human? Or does it mean that I believe that the primary deity of the Jews impregnated the child-bride of a carpenter in order to fulminate a socialist revolution by allowing people to observe several magic tricks and then fake his own death because he was actually immortal.
In short, if I say “Yes, I believe in Jesus,” am I asserting belief in a historically reported person, or a demi-god? More importantly what do they mean when they ask me this? Because I watched the presidential debates and coverage and punditry. As near as I can tell, when someone says “I believe in Jesus” what they mean is “I’m about to say something absurdly hateful so I’m using the name of a famous nice person we’ve all heard of to ameliorate the overwhelming selfishness and pernicious evil that would otherwise be painfully obvious, and immediately derided as blinding levels of self-indulgent bile bordering on egomania.”

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The Piebald One

The Dark Fool dances like a harlequin, like a rabbit in a field when no one is watching. His diamonds are so deep they’re embedded in his very skin. He spirals and hops and he makes jokes that hide and reveal more and less than he knows. Here he records some of what plays in his mind, his own little mark upon the stones, like those who came before and have left us with as many questions as answers.
Oh, and there’s gonna be a lot of sarcasm, some irony, and way more than enough absurdity to go around.
View all posts by The Piebald One